Lokah Samastah Sukhinoh Bhavantu

Today, I’m writing to you from Delhi, India. Just this morning we concluded our Himalayan Yoga Yatra (pilgrimage) to follow in the footsteps of Ram Dass and Neem Karoli Baba (Maharaji). We have spent the last couple of weeks steeped in Bhakti (devotion) by chanting mantras, visiting sacred sites and temples, and enjoying the company of satsang (a fellowship of spiritual seekers). 

Ram Dass often encouraged people to “quiet the mind and open the heart,” and we have had the opportunity here in Mother India to do just that. Maharaji encouraged his devotees who were interested in enlightenment to love everyone, to serve others, to remember God, and to tell the truth. Quieting the mind and opening the heart are essential if we wish to do those things. One result of opening our hearts is that compassion grows within us. 

The Jivamukti Yoga focus of the month for April is compassion. My teacher Sharon Gannon teaches that compassion means being moved to do whatever we can to alleviate the suffering of another—it goes beyond empathy. When we begin to see ourselves in others, when we begin to realize that all beings—just like ourselves—wish to be happy and free from suffering, we stop seeing “otherness” and start seeing what Maharaji called the One. When we see others as separate or as different from ourselves, it is more challenging to be compassionate toward them. When we see Oneness, we realize that what we do to another we do to our own selves. Sharon Gannon says, “The best thing we can do to uplift our own lives is to do all we can to uplift the lives of others.” 

In the Jivamukti Yoga method, we often chant the mantra Lokah Samastah Sukhinoh Bhavantu, which means, “May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and to that freedom for all.” There is a lifetime (if not lifetimes) of practice to be found in this mantra, just as there is a lifetime of practice in learning to quiet the mind and open the heart.  And of course, there are also lifetimes of practice in learning to love everyone, to serve everyone, to remember God, and to tell the truth. 

Now, more than ever, it is essential that we work to become compassionate beings who are committed to alleviating suffering wherever we find it. Ram Dass said, “The pain of the world will sear and break our hearts because we can no longer keep them closed. We’ve seen too much now. To some degree or other, we have surrendered into service and are willing to pay the price of compassion. But with it comes the joy of a single, caring act. With it comes the honor of participating in a generous process in which one rises each day and does what one can. With it comes the simple, singular grace of being an instrument of Love, in whatever form, to whatever end.” 

Jai Sri Ram

Sharada Devi